Jude and Birdie's first day/writing my Friends and Family talk - unleavened bread of sincerity and truth./"Stretch out your hand." +JMJ+

Birdie Barbara on her first day of Preschool.  She will be going to HRS for all day Monday, Wednesday and Friday!  John said that she is both excited and nervous.  I am sure that she will do just fine!  

Jude is starting his first day of Kindergarten today!  Very exciting indeed!  

This painting by Claude Monet made me smile!  I am known to put kids on top of a car to make it look like they are up in the clouds!  Fence posts also in the past.  

a borrowed picture from FB as it is now Sunflower time of year, too!  

What a beautiful Saint today - St Peter Claver, who ministered to the slaves brought over here under horrific conditions and their freedom taken away!  This was his words today!  

From a letter by Saint Peter Claver, priest
(Epist. Diei 31 maii 1627 ad Superiorem suum data: Edit [in lingua hispanica] A. Valtierra, S. I., San Pedro Claver, Cartagena, 1964, pp. 140-1)

To preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim pardon to captives

Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried toward them. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.

We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.

This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.

After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.

They live half a block from the Catholic School.  So special to this family as John and Bobbi were classmates here from Kindergarten to 8th grade!  

Mother Mary's birthday in the Church - September 8th!  

Born without sin!  

Truth!  

John's 3 kids at our family brunch after mass yesterday on the farm. 23rd Sunday of Ordinary time.  The Gospel was Jesus healing the deaf man with the speech impediment.  "The deaf will hear and the mute speak!"  He is truly the Son of God!  

Out with Ruth, Bobbi and Lucy to discuss when we will can next.  Friday in Delano!  The traveling canners will go on the road again with soup or spaghetti sauce!  

After mass - Ruth's beautiful black eyed Susans from in front of the Parsonage...

Tommy too!  

Pat brings a carload to shop for our celebratory brunch after sharing Mass together!  How we love to share our Faith as a Family!  

Joy returned Birdie's necklace at mass.  

I have been writing out my heart - Knowing God through Family and Friends.  So much poured out about my parents bringing the 13 into The Catholic Church 53 years ago!  About John's cancer bringing him to Faith, and how our kids are taking us deeper in our Catholic Faith!  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Our marriage stories - "The world needs LIGHTS!"  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: John's cancer stories  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: The amazing story of the 13 becoming Catholic!  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Deacon Robert Cross - my dad on hospice in our Farm Monastery for 6 months - 4/16/20 thru 10/23/20  

I pray that my talk will be filled with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth."  I Corinthians 5:1-8 the First reading today.

I certainly have been healed and led by Jesus into so many places of blessing in my life.  In the Gospel today from Luke 6:6-11 Jesus heals the man with the withered hand - said to the man with the withered hand,

"Come up and stand before us."
And he rose and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them,
"I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?"
Looking around at them all, he then said to him,
"Stretch out your hand."
He did so and his hand was restored.  Luke 6 

My dad pointing this out to me today in Morning Prayer - how I love to sit at his feet!  

John with Nancy's Gina and his Lucy - my two youngest grandchildren!  

John with Goddaughter, Josephine, and daughter, Birdie Barbara.  We were up at Nancy's for Bernadette in Shrek.  

Bernadette after the final performance of Shrek - she was Donkey!  

Pizza supper by the pool after a fun family day. 

Their beautiful pool should feel nice after canning on Friday - it is supposed to be hot again this week.

Shrek, Fiona and Donkey - very good show!  

Lucy by the pool - she will go with us on Friday too.  

Bill's sister, Cousins, and siblings for Shrek

Mine is calling me after I do the chickens and get the mail

It is the taking of a LIFE!  

United in heaven and fighting for LIFE!  

I need to wrap this up for today.  Jesus and Mary,
I love you.... Save Souls!  I stretch out my hand to you and ask for your healing and that you continue to guide me down the narrow path with heaven forever as my goal!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33.

Danielle Rose - Small things with great love